Titan T1-X Home Gym Review

Home gyms come in many
sizes and there are hundreds, maybe thousands on the market. But in all my
years of using and reviewing home gyms and home gym equipment, I have never
seen or used a gym that impressed me as much as the Titan T1-X.

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Home Gym Bodybuilding exclusive: I have arranged with Titan for my readers to get a discount on any TITAN home gym: Mention the discount coupon code “HGB” and you get 5% off any TITAN home gym.

"Titan T1-X home gyms are intelligently engineered, commercial-grade quality machines, destined to become the bench-mark for excellence in home gym equipment."

I want one of these home gyms!

The home gym equipment included in this package is 2nd-to-none and their remarkable user friendliness make them the only hardcore home gyms I know that successfully cross the barrier between serious-lifting and family training.

This most impressive characteristic is due to it's unique multi-functional design, 'Assisted Exercise Technology' and counter balance system not seen in any other gym in it's class - usually found only in modern commercial-gyms (read the review to learn more).

I want to avoid hyping the Titan T1-X home gyms too much or this review will not be impartial. And, as you will see once you read the 'Cons' section, this gym doesn't quite achieve perfection and has a couple of minor issues.

The weight plate posts are machine-milled from stainless steel pillars,
contrast this with the softer chrome plated posts found on most other home
gyms which use olympic sized plates (big hole). The softer chromed posts
become very banged-up over time, leading to difficulty in adding and
removing plates fromthe machine. Not an issue with milled stainless
steel.

The frame arrives about 30% assembled and is easily completed (this
was a design consideration). Moreover, complete instruction is available
on TITAN website www.titan-gyms.com

Bench: Laminated wood-backed adjustable bench, padded with high density foam on a
heavy-duty 1-1/2" steel frame along all four edges (many home gyms
have a single support running up back of bench, which eventually leads to
wobbling and thread shear).

Seat and backrest are adjustable (including height adjustable). Cleverly,
the bench has been designed to be adjustable to the extent that the user
faces theopposite direction when doing leg-press, achieved by lowering
backrest to flat position and raising seat to a perpendicular position to
act as backrest.

The decline position is achieved by lying backwards on the bench when it
is inclined, you are stabilized by padded leg-lock.

The bench also has a unique slide feature, allowing it to be easily moved
forward or backward along steel guide rails and hardened bearings rollers,
permitting optimal body positioning as per your body dimensions. Aligning
a free standing bench perfectly can sometimes involve getting off and back
on the bench several times, but the slide system is always exactly
centered and can be moved in or out with out getting off the bench (walk
it with your feet while sitting).

Some bench exercises, like flat and incline press, put your lower back
into a dangerous hyper-extended position because there is nowhere to put
your feet (they should be elevated to reduce forward hip rotation). The
Titan T1-X has actually taken this into account bymaking the leg-lock
pads angle adjustable and adding foot rests on the sides, now you can
elevate your legs without compromising stability. A small detail but very good
(the absence of this feature has long been a silent gripe of mine because
I've had lower back injuries from training).

Smith
machine: Mario, the US national dealer informed me that
the smith machine is not a smith but instead a 'Smith Hybrid' using 'Smith
Hybrid Technology'.

True, it is unlike other smiths I have used. The genius of this system is
the load direction can be reversed. Standard smith machines are just a bar
attached to guide rods and the load is always down. The Titan T1-X home
gyms use pulleys to create counter-balance and if desired, reverse the
load direction from down to up. This feature alone is worth atleast a
dozen additional exercises that I can think of without being
creative.

The counter-balance system also allows for very light loads, as little as
1lb, making this home gym equipment suitable for everyone, including woman
and young adults.

For convenience and familiarity purposes, I will refer to the smith hybrid
as a smith machine for the rest of this review.

The smith machine uses 1.2 inch steel guide rods (largest and strongest of
all home gyms currently available), and the rod brackets glide on hardened
bearings rollers with sealed ballbearing housings. The only home gym
equipment using this technology.

Usually, smith machine rod brackets are prone to becoming loose or sticky
over time (depends whether bearing or bush system), leading to a shudder
effect or increased load on the concentric (up) phase. Titan T1-X's hard
wearing, maintenance free components have a very long use-life and should
not experience these problems.

One of my favorite features of the Titan T1-X smith machine are the
shoulder pads. Whereas other smith machines only have a bar, the Titan T1-X
home gyms have squat pads like those seen on commercial-gym squat
machines. You place one pad on each shoulder with your head in between.
But unlike most commercial-gym squat machines, there are 3 different width
settings for the pads.

Another unique feature of the
Titan T1-X are the 'push/pull exercise handles'. Instead of a barbell, standard
on most smith machines, there is one of these 'push/pull' handles per side of
the machine. The benefit is, where the depth of the eccentric (down) phase is
usually limited by the bar touching the back of your neck in shoulder press or
chest in bench press, the push/pull handles allow you to descend beyond this
point to achieve full lengthening of the target muscles.

You can also center yourself
when shrugging, as you would when doing dumbbell shrugs with an arm either side
of your body.

Titan T1-X Home Gym Review continued:

"Quick
Change" locking system: A patent pending system
for safe and easy transition and resting between exercises.

Power
racks: 2 power racks for work with free weight
barbells. No area of this home gym equipment has been left under-utilized.
Power racks are for shoulder press, military press (shoulders), dead lift
(back of thigh, butt, and lower back), squat (legs, butt), upright row
(shoulders), lunge (legs), flat, incline and decline bench press (chest)
and so on.

Gun
racks: There are huge height adjustable gun racks that
can be mounted on the front or rear power racks, much larger than other
home gyms seen in this class. Gun racks are used for heavy barbell lifting
or as a safe guard against getting 'stuck' at the bottom of an exercise.
They also make the starting position for exercises like upright row and
standing military press easier to achieve.

Leg
press: Again the innovation of Titan T1-X home gyms
impress, this time with their clever leg press engineering. As a rule, leg
press is usually an optional extra on home gym equipment. It requires
added expense and a lot more room because it is nearly always an
independent system that sometimes even requires its own weight stack.

Titan T1-X has solved this problem by eliminating the levers usually
needed for leg press and incorporating the slide feature of the bench.
Your feet remain stationary as you push against Diamond-steel foot plates
('Diamond' describes the high-grip surface pattern), and the bench slides
in and out.

The footplates can be changed between high and low positions. High
position will hit more the hamstrings and glutes (back of thigh and butt)
while the lower position will place more load on quadriceps (front of
thigh). Lower position is also safer if pregnant or lower back problems.

Vertical
leg press: As testimony to the remarkable versatility of
the Titan T1-X home gyms, they also come standard with a vertical leg
press. Separately, these usually retail for about $400 on the lower end.
In a vertical leg press you are lying on your back and pressing straight
up; they are an excellent power exercise and a good alternative to squats.
An additional set of footplates are included for this feature.

High
cable for lat pulldown (back), triceps pushdowns
(back of arm).

Low
cable: The single low cable can be used for many
exercises, for example, upright row, cable curls (front of arm), one arm
concentration curls (front of arm) and triceps kickbacks (back of arm).

Low row
station: There are footplates on the rear side of the
gym especially for low row using the low cable. Rowing (on a gym) is
essential for building thickness in your back, particularly in rhomboids,
middle fibers of trapezius (central region of upper back) and rear
deltoids (shoulders).

Pull-up
handles for close and wide grips pull-ups (also
known as chin-ups). Instead of a straight bar, which adducts the wrists
and overloads the radiocarpal joints, the handles have 2 branches,
ergonomically positioned to evenly spread the load. Small touches like
these may go unnoticed by a novice but to the experience trainer, they are
very welcomed.

If you prefer chins with a straight bar, there is a bracket for placing an
Olympic bar (bar with large bore stabilizers on each end - hence Olympic
plates have large holes). But thebar is not included and needs to be
purchased separately. Something low priced from a local retailer would be
sufficient.

The pull up handles can also be used for hanging leg raises (lower
abdominals and hip flexors)

Assisted
pull-up station: Most people can't do pull-ups, or only a few of
them at best, which is unfortunate because they are the number exercise
for building width across your back; essential if you want to be
"V" shaped. Amazingly, the Titan T1-X home gyms come standard
with an assisted pull-up station. You kneel on a special padded platform
which is counter balanced to push up, effectively reducing how much weight
you lift. Assisted pull-ups are a commerial-gym exercise not seen on other
home gym equipment in this class.

Assisted
dip station for shoulders, triceps (back of arms) chest
and some outer back.

Dips are in the top 3 mass building exercises for chest after barbell
bench and dumbbell bench. Leaning forward hits chest and shoulders and an
upright position places more load on the triceps.

Unfortunately many people can't do dips because you need atleast enough
strength to support your body weight. Even when you can, it is difficult
to squeeze out 3 sets because your body is the minimum load. But using the
same counter-balance system mentioned earlier to reverse the load, and
specially adapted handles, you can do a dipping motion while your body
remains stationary. On the Titan T1-X, anyone can
do dips.

Standard
Accessories – all standard
accessories which are included in TITAN T1-X are listed on main website www.titan-gyms.com

in MENU -> ACCESSORIES

Optional
Equipment – there is a possibility
to buy additional options, which extend the variety of exercises. All
extra options for TITAN T1-X are listed on main website www.titan-gyms.com

Lifetime on the frame - sign of a confident
manufacturer, all the top producers offer the same.
2 years on pulleys and rollers.
1 year on upholstery and cables.

Pros

Where do I start? The Titan T1-X home gyms are the
best home gym equipment we have ever reviewed, by a very wide margin. I'll give
it to you in point form to keep it short:

The
manufacturers say there are 300 exercises total on this gym but I think I
could get more. The number 1 problem with even the best home gym equipment
is boredom resulting from limited exercise potential. The Titan T1-Xs are
the most exercise packed home gyms I've ever seen.

Smith
Hybrid Technology with counter balance system to reverse load direction on
smith.

Smith
machine and counter balance system can work independently and therefore
more than user is possible.

Leg
press is standard and has 2 different foot positions.

Vertical
leg press is standard. I've never seen a home gym wih this feature, a big
bonus if you want to build powerful legs

Assisted
Exercise Technology - assisted dips, assisted pull-ups. These kinds of
exercises are usually strictly the domain of commercial-gyms and really
open these great exercises to anyone who wants to do them (not just the
strong).

Variable
positions on ergonomic pull-up bars.

Plenty of cable handles.

Width
adjustable squat shoulder pads.

Push/pull
handles instead of a bar so you can go dumbbell deep on your exercises.

Unique
sliding bench for easy positioning.

Detailed
and wide instruction available on main website www.titan-gyms.com

Comes
30% assembled and designed to be easily put together (I often get
questions asking how to assemble a gym or where to get a manual).

Many
options - options on other gyms I've reviewed are usually a leg press
(standard on this gym) or hanging leg raise or hip ab/adduction arm and
you can only have one or the other. The options on the Titan T1-X home
gyms are unique and mostly multi-functional and you can get all of them if
you desire. Specifically I liked the
following:

Opt.
JA – the lever arms where you can perform over 20 exercises.

Opt.
RM – rowing exercises – the one and only multi-functional machine TITAN
T1-X which includes this type of rowing exercises.

Nothing
for soleus. Soleus makes up the volume in the lower portion of your calf.
But no other home gyms have a soleus exercise either.

No
standing calf raise block. With any exercise you need to go through full
motion to get full growth. The web site shows the user standing on a 20lb
plate but it is not high enough for full range. A short length of
4"x4" timber with a couple of feet on it would do the trick for
$10 or less.

The
squat demonstration on their website uses the same weight plate under the
heel, but as a sports therapist and gym instructor I can't condone that. A
short length of 2"x1" timber with feet would be better.

Overall

Anyone who has the room and the budget for something
in this class should buy the Titan T1-X, absolutely no doubt about it. They are
the best.

It is by far superior in design, innovation and
versatility than any other home gyms I have ever reviewed.

Sellers

If you are interested in
purchasing TITAN machines, please contact the official distributor for the US and
CANADA market.

Webmaster's Note: Titan gyms may cost more than the typical home gym, but I have spent at least $7-8K on my home gym just by buying, reselling and changing out different gym machines over the years when I could have just purchased a Titan in the beginning.